Learning from Baseball's Mudcat Grant

Learning from Baseball's “Mudcat” Grant

Rabbi Shmuel Jablon

(expanded version of an article published by The Cleveland Jewish News, April 4, 2006)

Even in an era dominated by multi million dollar contracts and the occasional scandal, one can still learn a lot from baseball. Recently, Fuchs Mizrachi School hosted Jim “Mudcat” Grant. He was at Mizrachi both to speak with Lower School students and to appear at the annual “Cleveland Sports Legends Night/Reverse Raffle” fund raising dinner.

“Mudcat” Grant was a two time All-Star during his Major League Baseball career (1958-1971). He was the first African American pitcher in the American League to win 20 games and to win a world series game (Both happened in 1965, months after he was foolishly traded by the Cleveland Indians.). After his career, he was a successful broadcaster. Yet all of this would have made Grant simply a talented baseball player. At Mizrachi, we focused on what makes him a role model.

First, there has been Grant’s long standing record of service to the community. He has worked closely with Juvenal Diabetes Research Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. He has recently adopted a little league in urban Cleveland to sponsor.

Second, there has been his tremendous perseverance to rise from poverty in the segregated south to stardom in the Major Leagues. He shared these important stories with the FMS community.

In the morning, he told the Lower School students that as an African American child in rural Florida, he was not permitted to study in a school with white children. Though he had dedicated teachers, there were simply not adequate materials to have a quality education. He told the students of receiving “hand-me-down” books from the white school. As these books were well used and missing pages, children in his school had to piece together pages from the books to acquire a full text. The stack of 15-20 partial books would be combined into three or full complete texts, hardly enough to provide a proper education.

Grant also shared with the students the realities of segregation. He was unable to use the same water fountains, restrooms, restaurants or hotels as whites. Then there were the times when this worsened into physical violence. He told of walking with a group of friends to the movies on a July 4^th. A group of local youth decided to shoot of a cannon filled with fireworks in their direction. The cannon, however, exploded and seriously injured the local bullies. Despite all of this, under his mother’s guidance, he learned not to respond to hate with hate.

At the evening event, Grant told the adults of the discrimination he faced even as an adult baseball player. It was well known that white and black players could not stay together in the same hotels. At spring training, the Indians rented military barracks so that all players could be in the same location. However, in exhibition games in the south, Grant and other African American teammates were faced with the humiliation of being unable to be treated the same as their white colleagues. He told of landing in New Orleans, where blacks were not permitted in the airport lobby or to wait for cabs alongside whites. They were forced to remain on a grassy hill to wait until a black cab would arrive. On such trips, the luggage would invariably be brought to the white hotel. The black players would then need to take turns attempting to retrieve their luggage. In once such incident, the Indians were playing the Boston Red Sox in New Orleans. When Grant went to retrieve the luggage, he was stopped by a hotel baggage handler who refused to allow him into the hotel. He told him that blacks had no business entering. While discussing the situation with him, Grant saw Ted Williams entering the lobby. Williams walked over to Grant and asked what was happening.

“Well, you know we cannot stay at this hotel,” said Grant.

“I know. It’s a terrible shame,” said Williams.
”This man will not let me come in to get my bags that were sent here.”

Williams replied, “He’s right. You shouldn’t be going in to get those bags. He should get them and bring them out to you!”

Despite the prejudice, however, there was a great deal of hope. Grant told of pitching in 1958 in Detroit. At that time, he was the only African American pitcher in the American League. While warming up, he noticed that there were thousands of black fans in the outfield stands. He asked his roommate Larry Doby (who had been the first African American in the American League) if there was a special promotion that day. Doby laughed and said, “Mud! They’re here to see you!” Doby, very much Grant’s mentor, then suggested that they go to the outfield area and shake hands with the fans. “We must have shaken 1500 hands that day,” said Grant. “You could see the hope and joy in their eyes.”

After retiring from baseball, Grant was swindled out of a great deal of money by a would-be business partner. He called his mother on the phone and said, “Mom. They’ve taken everything.” His mother promptly hung up on him.

He called her back and asked, “Why did you hang up on me?”

She replied, “How did you dial the phone?”

He answered, “With my fingers.”

“And how did you see the numbers?”

“With my eyes, Mom!”

“And are you standing up or sitting down?”
”I am standing up,” he answered.

“And how are you talking?”

“With my mouth and tongue.”

“Well son, you see they haven’t taken everything! You’re just going to have to work to make back what they did take.”

Within a year, he made back the money that had been stolen.

This was the message Grant was able to give to both students and adults at our school. There has been a lot of hate in the world. However, there is also much hope. There are many obstacles to overcome. However, within us, there must be the perseverance to overcome them. This is a message not only for baseball, but for life.

Rabbi Shmuel Jablon is Head of Lower School at Fuchs Mizrachi School.